Steinert Hall, Boylston St., Boston (2012)
Alexander Steinert
(1861-1933)

Steinert Hall (est. 1896) of Boston, Massachusetts, stands at 162 Boylston Street on what was called Boston's "piano row",[1] opposite the Common in the Boston Theater District.

Piano dealers M. Steinert & Sons own the building, erected in 1896 by company employee Alexander Steinert.[2][3][nb 1] Architects Winslow and Wetherell designed the "six-story limestone and brick Beaux Arts-style facade with terra-cotta ornament and a copper cornice."[4]

Underground performance auditorium

Inside the building and four stories below ground is a concert auditorium, now closed, designed in the "Adam-style ... with fluted Corinthian pilasters separating round arches."[4] Around 1911 some considered Steinert Hall the "headquarters for the musical and artistic world of cultured Boston. Lhévinne, Josef Hofmann, Harold Bauer, Anna Diller Starbuck, Fritz Kreisler and many others have made their bows from its platform."[5]

The concert auditorium, now in ill-repair, has not been used since it was closed in 1942 due to new fire code restrictions imposed after the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire and the prohibitive cost to upgrade the hall.[1]

In May 2015, it was announced that the hall would be renovated in an attempt to open it again for performances.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ In 1883 company founder Morris Steinert relocated the firm's headquarters to Boston (by way of Georgia, Connecticut, and Rhode Island). Around 1889 "Steinert Hall" opened in Boston's Hotel Boylston, located at the corner of Tremont Street and Boylston Street; the building existed until 1894.

References

  1. 1 2 Kahn, Joseph P., "Steinert Hall, out of use and far from sight", The Boston Globe, December 13, 2013
  2. ↑ Edwin M. Bacon (1916), The book of Boston, Boston, Mass: Book of Boston Co., OL 2591948M
  3. ↑ M. Steinert & Sons. Philosophy & History. Retrieved 2012-03-20
  4. 1 2 Susan Southworth; Michael Southworth (2008). AIA Guide to Boston (3 ed.). Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot. ISBN 978-0-76274-337-7.
  5. ↑ Alfred Dolge (1911), Pianos and their Makers, v.2, Covina, Calif: Covina Publishing Company, OCLC 1199554
  6. ↑ "Underground Boston Theater May Come Alive Again". WBUR-FM. 24 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015.

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